SSD Deputy Director Went to China in November

U Tong-chuk

Tokyo Shimbun reports that KPA Col. Gen. U Tong-chuk visited China in the middle of November.  U Tong-chuk is the Senior Deputy Director of the State Security Department and was elected to the expanded National Defense Commission at the 12th Supreme People’s Assembly in April.  He also has personal and political ties to Jang Song-thaek.  It is believed that he was in China to coordinate security arrangements for a possible Kim Jong-il visit there early in 2010.  Tokyo Shimbun also reports that during his own mid-November visit to China, MPAF General Political Bureau Senior Deputy Director (and NDC Member), General Kim Jong-gak, may have visited Yuwen Middle School in Jilin.  The late DPRK President Kim Il-sung attended, and expelled from, Yuwen Middle School in the 1920’s.

Tokyo Shimbun reports,  “The sources say that U Tong-ch’ik’s visit to China is connected to this news, and they point out that it was ‘possible [U Tong-ch’ik] met with senior Chinese security officials to discuss security for Kim Jong Il.’   Other sources believe that Kim Cho’ng-kak’s visit to Yuwen Middle School was an ‘inspection to prepare a visit by Kim Jong Il.'”